Baseball: The Day the Old Pros Won

Sports fans, like 19th century novelists and Avis executives, believe in handicap justice. And when No. 2 man ages heroics despite hardship, the cheering section becomes legion. Of the 200 million or so people tuned in to the Se ries around the world last week, the folks in St. Louis and unreconstructed admirers of expert, well-rounded baseball teams were rooting for the Cardinals. Just about everybody else was discovering why the Red Sox—a 200-to-1 shot for the American League pennant and a 2-to-3 underdog in the Series—had cost Boston its Brahmin cool...

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